Illinois College routs Hanover 49-13 in opener

GANG TACKLE: Illinois College running back James Miller is tackled by Hanover’s Colin Alexander as Panther teammates Justin Magaw (35), Jamal Edwards (center) and Vince Peiffer (1) close on the play during Saturday’s football season opener at L.S. Ayres Field. (Staff photo by David Campbell)

SO CLOSE: Hanover running back Spencer Corrao gets tripped up by Illinois College lineman Chris Evans just before the Panther junior broke a big run during the season opener Saturday at L.S. Ayres Field. Illinois rolled to the 49-13 win. (Staff photo by David Campbell)

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Hanover College football opened its 2013 campaign with a blowout 49-13 loss at the hands of Illinois College Saturday at L.S. Ayres field.

Illinois scored so fast and often the Panthers were down 42-0 before Hanover could crack the scoreboard.

"That's a very good football team," Hanover coach Steve Baudendistel said. "That's a team predicted to go (10-0) and win their league ... I told the team it's a great opportunity for us to play somebody good. Shows us what we got to work on."

The Blueboys (1-0) scored on five of their six first half possessions.

It was the Cecil Brimmage show in the first quarter, as the Blueboys' running back ran for touchdowns of 36 yards and a 68 yards en route to 151 yards on 12 carries in the game - that a year after going for a school record 341 yards in a meeting with the Panthers in Jacksonville, Ill.

"He's good. They didn't give him the ball as much as they could have," Baudendistel said. "They did a lot of different things. You could tell they were throwing everything out there as much as possible, just to make their opponents prepare for all the different wrinkles they have in their offense. They didn't use him as much as they should have. He's maybe the best back we're going to see this year."

The Panthers (0-1) trailed 21-0 after the first quarter and it didn't get any better in the second. Illinois quarterback Michael Bates took center stage and threw three touchdown passes to three different receivers.

Hanover finally cracked the scoreboard with 15 seconds before halftime when freshman quarterback Adam Gutermuth ran the ball in from 8 yards out.

Gutermuth was forced into action after starter senior Dexter Britt left the game midway through the second quarter with an injury to his shoulder.

"It's one of those things we won't know until Monday. It's inflamed," Baudendistel said of the injury. "They have got to wait and let the swelling go down."

The second half belonged to Hanover's young talented freshmen. Gutermuth was 12-of-22 for 172 yards and one interception while wide receiver Ricky Windell caught six balls for 130 yards.

"We knew we were going to have some young guys out there. We've been patient with those guys during camp, knowing they were going to be thrown into the fire very early," Baudendistel said. "(Gutermuth) is a guy we knew that could play. The great thing about Adam, he fits into our scheme. It's not like putting him in there makes us do something different than having Dexter in there. Teams will get the same look with him.

"Ricky's a guy who's kind of new to football," Baudendistel added. "He was a soccer player pretty much in high school, played a little bit of high school football his senior year maybe four or five games. We got him pretty late in the recruiting process. His high school coach told us we're getting a steal. He's a real young raw talent. He's going to be real good."

Gutermuth and Windell weren't the only players who impressed the Hanover coach. Layne Taylor, of Silver Creek, had six catches for 61 yards.

Still, Baudendistel said that there is room for improvement, something the Panthers must do before next Saturday's game at Wabash.

"The one thing I stressed to the guys during camp was getting rid of the things we control," Baudendistel said. "Missed tackles, dropped passes, missed assignments, guys taking plays off. We were out-matched in a lot of positions but we'll still put out plays where we did something that had nothing to do with them. We'll get better."